


saltwater blood

by mnemememory



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Gen, spoilers for wedding onesht
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-07
Updated: 2019-09-07
Packaged: 2020-10-11 12:16:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20546024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mnemememory/pseuds/mnemememory
Summary: Vax breathes in the water with his sister, feels the crushing weight against her lungs and the panic welling deep in her chest.(or, vax's pov when vex drowns)





	saltwater blood

...

...

**saltwater blood**

...

...

_We had a deal._

Vax breathes in the water with his sister, feels the crushing weight against her lungs and the panic welling deep in her chest. She can’t move her limbs – her fingers twitch in a kind of futile denial, but she can’t stop herself from sinking lower and lower, and neither can Vax. He scrabbles his ghostly hands along her wrists, along her manacles, desperation mounting.

_We had a _deal.

Percy is so far away, a lost thing in a dark ocean. There is nothing he can do for his bride. For Vax’s _sister_. He will live. Percy will live.

She’s still struggling. Even now, even hopeless and drowning and nearly-dead, Vex is still struggling for air. She wriggles awkwardly in the water and twitches her fingers against the lock, shoving in the arrow pin as deep as it will go. _Break, _Vax urges, even though he already knows that it’s too late.

Vex closes her eyes. She hangs in the water with sunlight streaming up from above the waves to silhouette the hair that warps through the water. Vax cradles her still face in his useless hands, fingers barely brushing up against her skin. Not like this. Not like this.

They bogh go down further, darker. Vax can feel an old kind of sickness build in his stomach, something he had thought himself far beyond and long past. Recklessness rushes back with full force, the need to sweep _his sister_ into his arms and reach desperately for something, for _anything_ that will save her. He feels everything hold itself still as the last remains of her breath filter through the water, and she is dead.

Vax’s thoughts are razor sharp. _We. Had. A deal._

The Raven Queen settles beyond them, beside them, tall and shadowy. Her porcelain mask mocks him, expressionless.

“Your sister is not exempt from my domain,” she says, reaching out a spectral hand. Vax reacts without thinking, putting himself between his sister and his mistress. She hesitates for a second, before pushing through his body to touch Vex’s. “It was a single deal, for a single life.”

“She will live,” Vax says. His voice comes out clear despite the water – cold and furious. He does not move away from his position in front of Vex.

“She is now mine,” the Raven Queen says. “You are reunited at last.”

“No,” Vax says.

Something cold presses up against the back of his neck. He feels his body seize, his teeth clench. He turns around without trembling.

Vex is staring up at him sleepily, just like she would when they were children. She had never been a fan of early mornings. He remembers them huddled together in their fathers’ house, clutching each other’s wrists and pretending everything was right in the world. He remembers being unable to sleep, standing guard of his still sister as night broke to dawn and the servants came calling for breakfast.

“Vax?” she says, and. And.

Vax pulls back sharply, horror bleeding through his non-existent veins. No. No. He _refuses_.

“My Champion,” the Raven Queen murmurs.

Then Vex’s body is being ripped away, being shoved upwards towards the surface by something strong and blue and beautiful. Vax barely has time to blink and all that’s left of his sister is a trail of bubbles and her lingering echo. Vax refuses to think of her as a ghost.

“You will like, Vex’ahlia,” Vax says, staring her in the eyes.

Vex frowns and looks around. Percy is nowhere to be seen – they’ve sunk too far down, too far dark. She can see the suggestion of light playing through the first thirty or so metres of water until it dies to nothingness. She looks down at her unbound hands and her unbound feet.

“Oh,” she says. “I’m dead.”

“Not yet,” Vax says, grabbing onto her hands and holding them close. Her fingers are so cold. She’s still clutching at the imprint of Percy’s arrow pin, the needle digging deep into her translucent flesh. “This is not how your story ends, sister.”

“I don’t think you have a say in that anymore,” Vex says. She’s shaking.

“I will always have a say in it,” Vax says. He ignores the heavy presence of the Raven Queen at their backs. Vex’s eyes slide around him, and he turns them around in the water so that he’s blocking her from view. “Look at me, Vex’ahlia, not at her.”

“My Champion,” the Raven Queen says, the words echoing out through the water like a shockwave.

“Look at me,” Vax says. “Look at me. Everything is going to be alright. Our family will fix this.”

Vex swallows thickly, and then she nods. She still doesn’t look entirely sure of what’s happening – there’s a concussed kind of look to her face, eyes unfocused and mouth slightly ajar. It isn’t unusual for the newly deceased – Vax flinches away from that description – to have some struggle coming to terms with their new situation, but Vax has every confidence that this is something his sister can handle. On a temporary basis. Because she is _not dead_. She is not going to _stay dead_.

“I’ve missed you,” she whispers, unlatching one of her hands from his to run her fingers along his cheek.

Vax just nods. He can’t say anything. _I’ve missed you_ would be a lie, because the words are too small to encompass the enormity of his grief. There aren’t enough words in any language he knows to tell her how much he’s missed her presence at his side, familiar and warm. It is the same reason he could never properly say _I love you_ to Keyleth. Eloquence means nothing without the proper phrases, and Vax far too often finds himself bereft.

“I’m so proud of you,” he says, because that one he can at least attempt. He’s been telling Vex how proud he is of her all their lives. “You’ve done such amazing things, Vex’ahlia, and this will not be the end. You will continue to grow and continue to do amazing things.”

Vex gives a half-smile, a strange expression in the eerie non-light, and then –

She’s gone.

…

…

“Forgive my earlier indiscretion, my Queen.”

“I take no offence. I am aware of your mortal failings.”

“My sister is alive.”

“Your sister is alive.”

“And will continue to be so for many years?”

“That is up to her, my Champion, and that family of yours.”

“There’s something you’re not telling me.”

“There are many things I am not telling you. But we have dallied here long enough. Come. We have work to do.”

“Yes, my Queen.”

...

...

**Author's Note:**

> prompt fill for the LOVELY theclockistickingwrite. I couldn't say no. it was too tempting you guys. 
> 
> (the wedding oneshot broke me).
> 
> Come say hi on [tumblr](mnemememory.tumblr.com) <3


End file.
